Free Republic

Should we be concerned by all of the volcanic activity that we are witnessing all over the planet right now? According to Volcano Discovery, 27 different volcanoes are erupting at this moment and many others are showing signs of waking up. Of course, this comes at a time when we are also seeing lots of unusual earthquakes around the globe. I have been regularly warning my readers about the instability of our planet, and it appears that seismic activity is beginning to spike as we approach the end of 2022. So will this trend continue once we get into 2023?...

Here is the late info on the Hunga Tonga volcano

On Saturday, the volcano at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai erupted, sending ash plumes 30 kilometres into the atmosphere, kicking off a tsunami in Tonga that reached as far away as Alaska, and destroying a volcanic cone that connected the uninhabited islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai. The volcano is around 65 kilometres northwest of Tongan capital, Nuku’alofa, with experts saying it was one of the most powerful eruptions since the 1990s. “The sea level gauge at Nuku’alofa, Tonga, recorded a tsunami wave of 1.19 metres before it stopped reporting,” Dr Hannah Power of the University of Newcastle said. “Waves of...

Scientists are struggling to monitor an active volcano that erupted off the South Pacific island of Tonga at the weekend, after the explosion destroyed its sea-level crater and drowned its mass, obscuring it from satellites. The eruption of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano, which sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean and was heard some 2,300 kms (1,430 miles) away in New Zealand. “The concern at the moment is how little information we have and that’s scary,” said Janine Krippner, a New Zealand-based volcanologist with the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program. “When the vent is...

Last week’s eruption of the volcano near the Pacific island nation of Tonga was 600 times more powerful than the nuke dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II. As a result, the eruption was so loud that many Tongans went deaf after the first explosion. “The first explosion…our ears were ringing and we couldn’t even hear each other, so all we do is pointing to our families to get up, get ready to run,” Marian Kupu, a journalist on Tonga, told Reuters. The eruption was so loud that it could be heard across the world, even thousands of miles...

The eruption of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano, which sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean and was heard some 2,300 kms (1,430 miles) away in New Zealand. [O]n-site instruments were likely destroyed in the eruption and the volcanology community was pooling together the best available data and expertise to review the explosion and predict anticipated future activity. Saturday's eruption was so powerful that space satellites captured not only huge clouds of ash but also an atmospheric shockwave that radiated out from the volcano at close to the speed of sound. Photographs and videos...

AAP/Japan Meteorology Agency Why the volcanic eruption in Tonga was so violent, and what to expect next January 15, 2022 3.04pm EST Shane Cronin, University of Auckland Author Shane Cronin Professor of Earth Sciences, University of Auckland The Kingdom of Tonga doesn’t often attract global attention, but a violent eruption of an underwater volcano on January 15 has spread shock waves, quite literally, around half the world. The volcano is usually not much to look at. It consists of two small uninhabited islands, Hunga-Ha’apai and Hunga-Tonga, poking about 100m above sea level 65km north of Tonga’s capital Nuku‘alofa. But hiding...

Residents of the South Pacific nation of Tonga are experiencing a total Internet shutdown after an underwater cable which connects the island to the rest of the world was severed, possibly by the anchor of a large ship. It doesn't just mean that the isolated country can't access Facebook and YouTube - it's also affected email, airline bookings, university enrollment, money wires and prevented businesses from processing credit and debit cards - throwing the small country into chaos as they face up to weeks of Internet isolation. A ship from nearby Samoa will be sent out to fix the severed...

Pictured: The spectacular eruption of an underwater volcano in the South Pacific ...The spectacular columns blasted out of the South Pacific yesterday six miles off the coast of Tonga's main island Tongatapu. The eruption can be seen clearly from the capital, Nuku'alofa... Towering above, the sheer power of the underwater volcano could be seen for many miles ...No warnings have been issued to the coastal villages...The situation...helped by trade winds which...blow gas and steam away from the island. The roiling seas beneath the full fury of the undersea volcano which is part of a cluster of 36 in the area...

The Pacific nation of Tonga is waiting to see if it has a new island, after an underwater volcanic eruption forced a column of smoke and ash into the skies near the country's capital, Nuku'alofa. The eruption began on Monday after an earth tremor and is still sending clouds of smoke, steam and ash up to 100 metres into the air. Seismologists say the tremor was between the low-lying twin volcanic islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai, an area where around 36 undersea volcanoes are situated. Kelepi Mafi from Tonga's Ministry of Lands says a marine survey will begin...

Aerial photos of the new Home Reef volcanic island in the Tongan archipelago, which produced some massive pumice reefs a few weeks ago (link below images). Home Reef Tonga Eruption

When an underwater volcano in Tonga erupted in January, it belched out more than ash and volcanic gases; it also spewed 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools' worth of water vapor into Earth's atmosphere, a new study finds. This water vapor could end up being the most destructive part of the volcano's eruption because it could potentially exacerbate global warming and deplete the ozone layer, according to the study. When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, it became the most powerful explosion on Earth in more than 30 years, with an equivalent force of 100 Hiroshima bombs.

As one of Japan’s most active volcanoes, Sakurajima often dazzles with spectacular displays of volcanic lightning set against an ash-filled sky. But the volcano can also produce much smaller, invisible bursts of electrical activity that mystify and intrigue scientists. Now, an analysis of 97 explosions at Sakurajima from June 2015 is helping to show when eruptions produce visible lightning strokes versus when they produce the mysterious, unseen surges of electrical activity, researchers report in the June 16 Geophysical Research Letters. These invisible bursts, called vent discharges, happen early in eruptions, which could allow scientists to figure out ways to use...

Even though Iceland seems to be getting more press… Superintendent Rögnvaldur Ólafsson is at the coordination center of the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, patiently waiting to see how things develop on the Reykjanes peninsula, where an eruption is considered likely. He tells mbl.is that in case of an eruption, it is highly unlikely that houses need to be invacuated in the Reykjanes peninsula. Most likely, a potential eruption would be a small one that would not put inhabited areas and infrastructure at risk. “We’re just waiting,” he states. This, he adds, is similar to what he experienced...

A region of Iceland is erupting for the first time in 800 years, raising concern of disruptions in air travel for centuries to come. The Guardian of London reported that since Jan. 21, the Reykjanes peninsula southwest of Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, has experienced more than 8,000 earthquakes. About 10 centimeters of land has risen due to magma intrusions underground, the paper said. "It seems that after being relatively inactive for many centuries, this region is waking up," Lancaster University volcanologist Dave McGarvie told the Guardian. The area is fed by five volcanic systems, the Guardian said, "which seem to come...

The activity at the small island volcano itself seems to have decreased a lot or even ceased - there are no more new ash alerts issued that mention new emissions at the volcano itself, and no significant heat signals can be found. However, VAAC Anchorage continues to alert about the possible remaining ash clouds from the main phase of the eruption during 21-22 June. On the other hand, most of this ash must by now have been dispersed sufficiently to fall below direct detection by satellite-based sensors. What is still clearly being detected is the significant SO2 gas plume: in...

BEC CREW 22 DEC 2016 It's dangerously close to hitting a critical pressure point. A 12-km wide cauldron that forms a vast supervolcano on the coast of Italy is showing signs of reawakening after almost 500 years of inactivity. Not only is this site rumoured to be responsible for the extinction of the Neanderthals, it’s got 500,000 people living around it right now, and researchers say it appears to be approaching a critical pressure point that could lead to an eruption. You might imagine a supervolcano as like a regular volcano, only supersized, rising up out of the ground and...

“Is the number of volcanic eruptions worldwide increasing? “Yes,” answers Michael Snyder in this startling article.“ During the 20th century, there were a total of 3,542 volcanic eruptions globally. That works out to approximately 35 eruptions per year. That may sound like a lot, but according to Volcano Discovery there are 36 volcanoes erupting around the world right now. In other words, the number of volcanoes erupting as you read this article is greater than the 20th century’s yearly average.“ And all of this is part of a larger trend. In 2013, we witnessed the most volcanic eruptions worldwide that...

There are few things more beautiful - or terrifying - than the menacing flash of lightning bolts within a volcanic ash cloud. The latests picture, captured by an amateur photographer as the Colima volcano in Mexico spews out a plume of ash and lava, reveals the raw power of a volcanic eruption. Hernando Rivera Cervantes took the pictures as local authorities warned those living around the volcano, which is also known as the Fire volcano, to prepare for a possible evacuation.

An aerial flight over Yellowstone’s Midway Geyser Basin in 2004 shows Grand Prismatic Spring and Excelsior Geyser Crater, which drain into the nearby Firehole River. Courtesy of USGSIn the unlikely event of a volcanic supereruption at Yellowstone National Park, the northern Rocky Mountains would be blanketed in meters of ash, and millimeters would be deposited as far away as New York City, Los Angeles and Miami, according to a new study. An improved computer model developed by the study’s authors finds that the hypothetical, large eruption would create a distinctive kind of ash cloud known as an umbrella, which expands...